Alphabaetafish

Ebb and Flow The Depths Chapter 1: The Descent Despite it being the first time they had ever seen the ocean, the unusual visitor couldn’t help but feel… underwhelmed. Having spent the last few days marching through fields, wandering along the winding rivers that cut deep gorges through the stone shield of the region, the energy they felt calling them had built a sense of anticipation the still calm before him failed to live up to. They first felt the niggling pull of the ocean from his haunt deep in land, cradled in the chasm of an ancient crater. At the bottom of its impromptu basin sat the accumulation of a season’s rainfall, having fallen hard and without warning over the span of a few hours. If that weren’t unusual enough, the stranger was baffled as it seemed to flow against gravity, on a mission toward the closest stream flowing to the north. It had an odd scent, rich with a touch of ammonia. Intrigued, the stone-faced esk followed it to this particular beach, with sand as

Washed Ashore Having never before seen so much as a pool of water, they wonder if perhaps starting with something smaller, tamer, would have been more reasonable. But let it never be said that when they committed to an idea they didn’t dive straight to the heart of it. And in this moment, across the blackest sand and coolest touch they’d ever experienced, they found they didn’t regret the decision to come here. Stretched far into the distance, the frigid water of the Atlantic nearly as black as the sand at the visitor’s feet churned angrily, white capped waves battering the coastline with extreme force. Over and over they crashed upon the stone, eroding it away over the millennia. The visitor wondered if the beach itself formed from these cliffs, or if their sediment was delivered from far corners of the world, or drawn up from the depths. Blue and red arrows marking their stone-flesh rotated lazily in thought. They turned their eyeless face towards True North, further inland. The